I almost blamed it on my monitor for the lack of color in the Forums page only to realise that the Format has been changed. Congrats! It sure looks neat. I have a quiry and I hope you guys can help me with it: Till recently I was using a very normal 15 inch monitor bought in 1998. I been longing for bigger screen and I finally ended buying a Samsung TFT SyncMaster 740N few days back. I have always been a firm believer in the fact that new technology does not necessarily mean .... improvement or betterment. Now, I am not complaining , just that I suddenly realise that there is so much to a monitor setting that I am unable to grip it. The Monitor came with 2 softwares.... MagicTune and Natural colors. These were supposed to help me set up my monitor colors etc., They did...... but god, there are so many permutation / combination that I have lost the default setting now. Normally it wouldnt have bothered me much as the current setting I have is very soothing to my half blind eye but..... if I have to work on my photographs it won't do. So the question is: How do I set up my Monitor to a more idea setting?? What should be the Screen resolution for a 17 inch?? How much should be the Brightness and Contrast?? Any other tip that you can give. Thank you. SNAKEY

:huh: Monitor adjustment can be tricky because there can be so many variations. I think you got yourself a nice new monitor there. My opinion would be to try running the monitor at 1024x768 resolution. Perhaps give 1280 x 1024 a go, but that may make things a bit too small and hard on your eyes. What is usually recommended for the Brightness/Contrast is to pump up the Contrast too 100%, then reduce the Brightness until the white starts to darkend slightly. You have to go with what looks right for you. I'm suprised the monitor didn't come with a decent set-up guide. Check out these links: normankoren and pawprint There are many others on the web to. You just have to play with it until you find what works best. Also, there should be a way to return to the factory defaults. Good luck!

I think a monitor calibration device would be a good investment. The Spider Express or Pantone Huey are reasonable prices and you will know that your monitor is then set correctly for brightness, contrast and colour rendition.

I have to say the way to go is with a calibration device. The spyder 2 is a really good tool to use, even more so if you do a lot of printing.

I am amazed I've made it this long without one. My colorspace it Photoshop is calibrated for print so whenever I go into "Save For Web" the colors are so much more saturated. I wish there was a happy medium. Those calibrators always seemed a bit pricey to me, at least the mac compatible ones. :mad: I haven't checked in over a year though, maybe they have come down in price.

Hi Raj can be a hit and miss affair and I found you may need to check the kelvin setup as most LCD are set for artificial light as opposed daylight here is a useful resource to check on monitor settings

Oh the URL has not appeared? may have found another bug http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html

Nope, the URLs work. It is just you Danny. :tongue2:

Thanks bunches Kramer,onslow, azy,dan mate for your wonderful tips...... I will take a look at the link fresh in the morning tommorow and will study it under diff light conditions too. I just hope I dont have to caliber diff settings for diff enviorenmental lights cause this room where I have my pc get everything from Daylight, to Room Light, to lamp light and also no light at all situation. Thanks once again!! You all Rock!!! SNAKEY

The native res on a 17" TFT is always 1280 x 1024 and anyother res is an emulation and will result in quality loss. I have to agree that something such as a Spyder from Pantone is the best way to go, depending on your monitor controls. I use the Spyder 2 and cant really fault it. To use hardware calibration you need at least IMO a monitor that has RGB controls, and pref gamma control. Some TFT monitors tend to be a bit in the bright side out of the box. Software calibration relies too much on what you see, that can differ in different light and times of the day, still it is better than nothing at all. Congrats on your new monitor, a 17 TFT has much larger viewable area over a 15 CRT and even a 17 CRT as the screen measurements are done differently.